After frantically poring over the 564 amendments offered to the Finance Committee’s bill to overhaul the health system, senators said they "are pretty confident" that the amended version will cover Sen. Olympia Snowe’s cat.

Philip Maddocks

After frantically poring over the 564 amendments offered to the Finance Committee’s bill to overhaul the health system, senators said they "are pretty confident" that the amended version will cover Sen. Olympia Snowe’s cat.

"It remains to be seen whether any American would still be eligible for insurance under this landmark legislation, but it has at least insured that Se. Snowe’s cat will have the power to choose the doctor it wants and get the coverage option that will give it peace of mind. It also remains to be seen whether Bo, the Obamas’ Portuguese water dog, will qualify under the amended bill," said one bleary-eyed legislative aide who had just finished reading over all the amendments to the bill.

That the proposed legislation would at least cover Snowe’s cat was seen as good news for the Finance Committee chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who last week had just put the final touches on his bill.

"All of us have had to rein in our expectations – including me," Baucus said in a telephone conference call with reporters and officials from the American Association of Feline Practitioners. "When I started out in this process months ago, I had expected this bill to provide health benefits to millions of the uninsured. Now I am just happy that we seem to have come up with something that will assure that Olympia’s cat can live out its days in the dignity it deserves and without having to worry about finding affordable health coverage. And I am still hopeful about Bo’s prospects."

Baucus insisted he had no idea that when his bill finally made it to the full Finance Committee, the chief beneficiary of the legislation would end up being the pet of one of the panel’s key members.

But since it appears the challenge for Baucus is to prevent his fellow Democrats (they outnumber Republicans 13 to 10) from shifting the bill so much so as to chase away the support of Snowe — a Republican from Maine who could provide the crucial 60th vote needed to get the measure through the Senate — having stumbled into language that may guarantee that the senator’s cat has access to affordable health care could prove crucial to winning her support.

"I don’t see the Republicans offering any proposals that go as far as the Finance Committee’s bill in terms of addressing the health care needs of Sen. Snowe’s cat, and that could prove to be a big problem for them," said one longtime political observer.

Snowe, who is being wooed by the White House to support health care reform, said her cat "is as surprised as anyone" that it has turned out to be a principal beneficiary of the Finance Committee’s legislation.

"But as my cat likes to remind me, health care reform in America has to begin somewhere," she said. "Perhaps it might make sense to start with people if people here really wanted to help one another. But they seem more open to helping out a cat than one another. So I’d say we are beginning where we should start."

Snowe said her cat had always wanted health insurance but had consistently been denied coverage in the past because of a pre-existing condition – namely, that it is a cat.

Democrats voiced cautious support for the Baucus bill while also expressing a variety of concerns. Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he was troubled that the amended legislation, by seeming to pare coverage for anyone but Snowe’s cat, appeared to do little that would help people buy insurance.

"This is reducing coverage for poor and working people," Rangel said, "And I am not convinced it does much for cats as a whole, either."

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he doubted that subsidies in the Baucus bill would be enough to enable middle-income people to buy insurance for Snowe’s cat without straining family budgets, and he vowed to seek changes.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., challenged Baucus and backers of his plan to help finance coverage of the millions of still uninsured cats by imposing $4 billion a year in fees on manufacturers of medical devices and diagnostic products.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a Republican and self-professed "Blue Dog" lover who participated in the bipartisan negotiations, said he wanted to lower the overall cost of the bill, estimated at $880 billion over 10 years. In addition, he said he wanted stronger guarantees that federal money would not be used to pay for abortions for Snowe’s cat or subsidize health insurance for illegal mice the senator’s cat might smuggle over the border. Grassley said he is also seeking unspecified "medical cat practice reforms."

At the same time, Grassley said he hoped to "stay at the table" working with Democrats.

"Legislation that impacts every American should have strong bipartisan support. That’s why I think it is important to keep the discussion going and to bring Bo into it,"